1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to hatch assemblies of the types employed for ventilation of passenger compartments of motor vehicles, truck cabs, mobile home units, truck campers, watercraft and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, many types and forms of ventilation units have been developed and employed for the purposes of providing a simple and efficient means of ventilating passenger compartments of motor vehicles, truck cabs, mobile home units, truck campers, watercraft and the like. More recently, ventilator hatch assemblies, or units, or the types suited for use as transparent roof or skylight ventilators have become quite popular and have been utilized extensively for such purposes, whereby they provide the additional functions of being both a light transmissive window structure and a ventilator which optionally may be opened for ventilation purposes or closed when desired. Customarily, most of such ventilating devices and structures comprise an annular frame member shaped to fit snugly within a hatch opening provided in the wall or roof structure of the vehicle or craft. The annular frame member defines a central opening which is spanned by a hatch member, or cover member, pivotally interconnected by suitable hinge members along one side or edge thereof to the annular frame member. Additionally, such ventilator hatch assemblies generally also include manually operable means for pivotally raising and lowering the hatch cover between alternative open and closed positions as well as means for locking the hatch cover in the elected open or closed positions. Not uncommonly, the prior art types of operational mechanisms for raising and lowering the hatch cover include the provision of cranks, guide tracks, slide tracks, push bars, and the like, which while being operational to shift the hatch cover between open and closed positions, are of rather complicated design and are susceptible to inordinate wear and damage, and usually are of relative slow operational movement.
Characteristically, the prior art types of ventilator units are constructed in such manner that the manually operable opening and closing means and hinge means intercooperate to accommodate pivotal movements of the hatch cover only betwen a closed position and a maximum open position which is ordinarily restricted to a position such that the hatch cover is disposed in an acute angular relationship with respect to the plane of the frame member and in an inclined overlying relationship with the hatch opening. In such position, human ingress or egress through the hatch opening is prevented or so obstructed that use of the hatch opening as an emergency escapescape hatch for quick or emergency evacuation of an occupant from the vehicle or craft is impeded or precluded. Moveover, in most instance, such prior art ventilator hatch assemblies have employed hinge means and manual operational devices which interconnect with and are fixedly secured to both the hatch cover and the frame member; the latter of which, of course, is in turn securely mounted to the wall or roof surface regions surrounding the hatch opening. Consequently, the capability of further raising or opening the hatch cover or of detaching or removing the same without the use of tools is in most instances pratically impossible. Thus, removal of the hatch cover for purposes of repair or replacement is rendered difficult. Even more importantly, however, hasty escape by an occupant of the vehicle or craft through the hatch opening in the event of emergency is prevented.
The provision of a readily accessable escape hatch is especially important in connection with the conventional construction of mobile homes and trailer homes which are customarily designed with only one entranceway or doorway to accommodate entrance or departure of occupants. Thus, such vehicles are subject to the ever present danger of obstruction of the only entranceway available in the event of an accident or overturning of the vehicle. In the event of fire or injury to the occupants of the vehicle, their captivity within the vehicle enhances the possibility of even greater disaster. Consequently, a substantial need has been found to exist for a commercially feasible ventilator hatch assembly of relatively simple structure suitable for production line fabrication and assembly, and which through the use of relatively few moveable parts is less susceptible to wear and disrepair while at the same time being capable of functioning smoothly and affording substantial ventilating capability. Attendant with these needs, there is also a great need for incorporating into such a ventilator hatch assembly design features which permit rapid manual detachment of the ventilator hatch cover by an occupant from within the vehicle to provide an alternative avenue of departure or escape from the vehicle in the event of accident or emergency. In keeping with these needs, a ventilator unit embodying such novel design features is especially well-suited for employment in numerous different embodiments such as automobiles, trucks, mobile homes, travel trailers, panel trucks, truck campers, vans, watercraft and the like.